( 19 reviews )
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Posted: Jul 9 2009
I love this genre of books, and in general I liked the book. It certainly shows the will to survive in the most dire of circumstances. I felt myself wondering what I would have done in the same situation...and wondering if I would have just ended it right there. The things these men endured to survive is unbelievable. That said, I started to wander in the middle of the book. I'd say there are @ 175 pages of them traveling in the desert, being tortured by their captures, drinking their own urine, and eating entrails. After awhile, it felt really repetitive (which I'm sure it was in real life), but for me as the reader I started skipping pages. It was like groundhog day. Hope that helps. Just trying to keep it real....
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( 1 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: May 4 2009
"Skeletons on the Zahara" is a perfect example of why I'm a big fan of true-life adventure narratives--you can't make this stuff up, as they say. The book is a fascinating, and sometimes horrifying, account of early 19th century sea captain James Riley and his crew of the Commerce, who fought an epic battle to survive captivity and slavery among Arabic nomads after being shipwrecked off the northwest coast of Africa in August 1815. Meant to sail through the Canary Islands, Riley's brig was swept off-course by contrary currents and ran aground on the Morocco coast, where it broke apart and left the captain and his crew adrift in two small boats. Once on shore, like many sailors before and after them, they were belguiled and attacked by muslim tribesmen, who killed a number of the crew and captured the rest, selling them off piecemeal to local slavers and other nomads. Those who survived their murderous and sometimes cannabilistic captors endured tortures, plagues of locusts, blinding sandstorms, thirst, starvation and other almost unimaginable horrors. After finally being ransomed by a British consul-general, Riley returned to the United States and wrote a memoir of his experiences. Published in 1817, Riley's text became a famous and influential abolitionist document, and was translated into several European languages. A young Abraham Lincoln was apparently greatly affected by the book, as was Henry David Thoreau--who cited it in his "Cape Cod" writings. In an 1819 letter to Ohio governor E. A. Brown, Riley confessed to being perpetually tormented by recurring nightmares about his ordeal and by his anxieties over the fate of his enslaved shipmates who remained forever lost. "Skeletons on the Zahara" is wonderfully readable, punctuated by profound moral and psychological insights about the human condition, and a page turner from start to finish. Highly recommended!
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Posted: Jan 27 2009
Couldn't put this book down. The adventure-tale aspect alone would have been reason enough to read it, but the description of the nomadic Arabs who enslaved Captain Riley and his crew is not only fascinating but educational. While the story is at times heartbreaking and difficult to read, there are heroes and acts of kindness on both sides and ultimately the story is uplifting. Apparently the account of human bondage on which this book was based was very influential on the young Abraham Lincoln.
